


the heart beats in threes

by CapyWritesShit



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 03: The Unsleeping City, Canon Compliant, Divorce, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling, Pre-Canon, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26191057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapyWritesShit/pseuds/CapyWritesShit
Summary: The expression on Liz's face as she spits his words back at him like acid from her lips is one Kingston will never be able to forget.[or: kingston and liz get divorced. kugrash and misty try to be there for their friend.]
Relationships: Bruce "Kugrash" Kugrich & Misty Moore | Rowan Berry, Kingston Brown & Bruce "Kugrash" Kugrich, Kingston Brown & Misty Moore | Rowan Berry, Past Kingston Brown/Elizabeth "Liz" Herrera
Comments: 9
Kudos: 40





	the heart beats in threes

The fight doesn't start until they're just arriving at home. They'd been visiting Liz's family, just for dinner and some games, and the entire night Kingston could feel the tension in Liz pulling more and more taught. She's never been great at hiding her emotions, and Kingston's naturally great at reading people, so the moment he saw the anger in her face light up to a truly frightening degree he decided he would try to help her get the two of them out for the night.

And now, having just gotten home on a cold winter night, the lights of the city illuminating the streets in the most romantic way out the window, Liz huffs in the way that means she's about to start a fight. Kingston, far used to the sound at this point, doesn't even need to brace himself before he feels a familiar defensive anger bubbling up in him, too.

If she wants to be angry, he's also going to be angry. There isn't an argument she can start that they haven't already had at this point, they've fought so often about everything they could possibly fight about that Kingston wouldn't be surprised if she started shouting about how shitty his jokes are.

Neither of them pause their movements, hanging up coats and taking off shoes. They don't need to. Like clockwork, Liz opens her mouth and Kingston prepares a retort to whatever bullshit she's about to say.

"I want a divorce."

And whatever Kingston thought she was going to say it certainly wasn't _that_.

It's been weeks since Liz's eyes were opened to The Unsleeping City, weeks since he revealed his place as Vox Populi and weeks since they started fighting almost daily. It's been _weeks_ and not _once_ has Kingston considered divorce. He's thought about every other option—trying to talk it out again, couples therapy, taking a break for a little while, _anything_ , but _never_ —

Liz must see his surprise because when she sighs, it's not a triumphant noise. It's resigned, tired, maybe even empathetic. "Kingston, you know it would've come to this eventually. I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life stuck fighting with you over decisions you can't take back, and if I have to deal with this, this—this _Sixth Borough_ shit, I don't wanna have to deal with you too."

Which really cuts deep, that fucking _hurts_. _Deal with him_? She considers their marriage _dealing with him_? Yes, they fight a lot, but the moments they aren't fighting are the moments Kingston treasures. He loves Liz, has loved her since the moment they first kissed, will continue to love her for as long as he lives. Liz is his commitment, and when he dropped down on one knee he knew he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her.

 _Deal with him_.

" _Deal with me_?" He vocalizes, for lack of anything better to say. If Kingston were a more eloquent man he would've said any number of romantic things to sway Liz, make her put off whatever this conversation is about to be for just another night.

Kingston, despite all his power from the people of New York, is not an eloquent man, and so he gives nothing more than the scandalized accusation. Liz visibly bristles and bites back something that would have undeniably been extremely rude. He doesn't know why, maybe to soften the blow, but the fact that she thinks he couldn't take it just feeds into the anger in his chest.

"Look, I know you're some _voice of the city_ or whatever the hell but just because you're all magical doesn't mean you can't be a pain in my ass."

"Oh, so we're really doing this now, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess we are, if you're gonna raise your voice like that!"

"You're the one that's acting like all your problems are my fault!"

"Maybe that's because they are! You ever think of that?!"

Something ugly and angry curls in Kingston's stomach because he knows what Liz is about to bring up and it seems to be her favorite topic to scream about. "Don't you _dare_ pin everything on me, Liz."

"Think about it! The only reason my life has taken this shitty turn is because you're the fucking—Vox Populous or something!"

"It's _Populi_!"

"Oh what _ever_! I'm so sick and tired of the bullshit magic and the pixies and centaurs! I can never get back my normal life, Kingston! I can't go back to the way I was before!" Liz's voice takes on a desperate tone, like she might start crying in the next five to ten minutes, and it makes Kingston weak. He doesn't want to make Liz cry, he doesn't even want to make her upset, but _Jesus_.

"This is what New York City _is_! I know it's weird and different and it can be confusing but this is the stuff I live with everyday! I just wanted to show you my world!" And maybe he's a little desperate now, too, because he just wants her to stay and they can try couples therapy if they can just get through tonight's fight. Maybe they can find a really good therapist from Nod that can help accommodate Liz to all the new sensations that come from opening her eyes, and then they'll be good, and then they can stay married and have a family and kids and _they'll be good_ —

"Did you ever think that maybe I didn't want to see it?!"

The apartment goes silent, but it only lasts the three seconds it takes for Kingston's hopes of remedying the situation to shatter. The expression on Liz's face as she spits his words back at him like acid from her lips is one Kingston will never be able to forget.

"God, Kingston, I can't even talk to my family without it being different! I can't go back from this. Everything's so weird now, so wild and magical like I'm in some horrible fairytale. I saw a goddamned talking tree in the park the other day and it yelled at me for almost bumping into it! I just can't do this, not like you can. And I'm sorry if that means we can't stay together." Her voice lowers, not a whisper but no longer shouting, and a steely resolve covers whatever vulnerability had just been on her face. "I think I need to go."

Instinctually, Kingston reaches out for her as she moves to put on her coat. "Don't go."

"I'll get the papers to you by Wednesday."

"Liz—"

The door closes (not slams, _closes_ , gently and easily) behind her and Kingston is left standing alone in his apartment, the sounds of the city surrounding him, Liz's things scattered around. She didn't take anything with her.

Kingston doesn't sleep.

* * *

It takes three months for Kingston to tell anyone that isn't his family. He's never been a closed-off guy, he knows that if he serves the city with an open heart the city will serve him the same, but when it comes to Liz—Kingston keeps quiet. It's more that nobody asks, really, until he shows up to Gramercy one day without a wedding ring. Even then, Alejandro is very patient, slow to ask, even if his pointed looks at Kingston's naked finger aren't very subtle. But he never brings it up, and Kingston never says anything.

Alejandro was always the easiest one to avoid talking to, out of all of Kingston's friends. When it comes to Misty and Kugrash, though—he's spilling his guts almost immediately. Misty just won't leave it alone and Kugrash has no idea what personal boundaries are so it's not really a surprise that the two of them tag-teaming him is enough to make the almighty Vox Populi crack.

"We got everything finalized today, so, y'know, I finally took it off," is his explanation when Misty probes at his ring finger questioningly. Kugrash winces, in a way that tells of an understanding very few of their friends actually have. Misty just purses her lips and leans against his arm, slumping her entire body weight onto him.

"That really sucks man, I won't lie." The table they're all sitting at is normal height but Alejandro has a specially sized chair for Kugrash when he visits. He gives Kingston a sympathetic look and picks at the fries in front of him. "I dunno what to tell you. Maybe you're better off."

Misty tuts and hums disapprovingly at Kugrash. "Now now, Liz may have had a... _harsh_ reaction to the Umbral Arcana being lifted, but this may just be a phase! I mean, it's very rare that people react positively to The Unsleeping City when they've been raised their whole lives in the waking world!"

"Better not to get his hopes up, though," Kugrash mutters as he shoves some fries in his mouth. Misty frowns down at him, and he shrugs. With a flick of her wrist, the fries in his little rat hands go flying onto the floor, and distantly Kingston can hear Alejandro scolding Misty for making a mess.

"Kug's right," he says after a moment, gaining the attention of both of his companions. Kugrash blinks for a second, before raising his head a little high and staring down his nose at Misty triumphantly. Misty glares back at him, deftly gestures to Kingston's still bare finger, and all the confidence leaves Kugrash in an instant, having suddenly been reminded exactly what he's right about.

Pretending that entire interaction hadn't just happened right in front of Kingston's eyes, Misty clears her throat and gives his arm a squeeze. She's two full feet shorter than him, so when she leans against him, her head rests right below his shoulder.

"You know what? Sure. Kugrash _is_ right, and I have the perfect solution for getting Liz taken right out of your life—"

"We're not killing her!" In the few years Kingston has known Misty, one of the things he's picked up on is that, when she makes a threat about someone "disappearing" she _means_ it. He's seen one too many people all but "go missing" at Misty's word. "No killing, no disappearing."

"I'm just saying, putting someone in a crystal cave for a few hundred years never hurt anybody!"

Kugrash snorts and tries to hide it unsuccessfully under a cough. "I don't think putting humans with relatively short lifespans in caves for eternity is the right way to go on this one, Misty."

The look Misty gives Kugrash is sour but holds no real bite to it, like she's used to him shutting down her more outrageous ideas. Kingston almost laughs. The two of them can be entertaining, when they want to be, but even watching them squabble doesn't quite do enough to lift his mood.

All he can think about is Liz, and the divorce process, and his mom holding him while he cried and Liz's parents glaring at him and the guest room bed where he's been sleeping for the past three months, unable to handle the weightlessness of Liz's side of their bed. It's rough, he knows he doesn't look good, but New York City doesn't have time to stop and revolve around Kingston's failed marriage. The world spins and Kingston has a job to do and even if he's upset he knows it'll pass.

It has to pass.

Misty throws a fry at Kugrash, presumably because of something rude he said, but it bounces harmlessly off his snout and back into his own tray. At the rat hairs that fall with it onto the tray, Misty's face scrunches up in clear disgust, and, once again triumphant for one reason or another, Kugrash smugly rubs his dirty paws all over the hairy fries. Misty groans.

"Kug, that's disgusting!"

"That's the whole point!"

The two go back and forth, Misty somehow still leaning comfortably against Kingston's arm in a show of silent support, but the more they playfully get at each other the more exhausted Kingston gets. it's not them, he knows that, but he's just dealing with way too much to have the energy to match them. A quick glance at his watch proves that he's about to feel even worse.

"Look, not that I don't love watching Kugrash get our fries so gross only he can safely eat them, I can't really stay here much longer," he interrupts just as Kugrash is going to toss a hairy, dirty, probably contaminated fry at Misty, who is twirling magic on her fingers to throw up a shield at the last moment so it doesn't hit her perfectly ironed shirt. The two of them pause what they're doing to look at him, twin expressions of worry quickly overtaking whatever was there before. "I've got work. My shift starts in twenty."

"Oh, absolutely not! You shouldn't be going in to work, you just got divorced! Come on Kingston, live a little! Either go home and throw yourself a pity party or get out there and mingle! You're a single man now, you know." Misty sidles up even closer and Kingston knows exactly where she's going with this and has to put a stop to it immediately.

"I do know, thanks, and I'd rather not look for another relationship—" he checks his watch again, very obviously and a bit exaggerated, "—an hour after my wife of two years divorced me."

Kugrash, surprisingly, nods in a sagely manner. "Yeah, what you should be doing is going home, eating an entire tub of ice cream, and watching horrible sitcoms on the couch until you can't feel your legs." The look Misty gives Kugrash is the most appalled yet intrigued expression Kingston has ever seen on her face.

"You say that as if from experience. What, did your little rat wife leave you some odd years ago?"

What is probably a hiss but in the thickest accent that it's almost indecipherable as one is what comes out of Kugrash's mouth, followed by, "I never had a rat wife, thanks for asking."

"Hey, you never know!" And Misty shrugs, completely unapologetic as she smiles at Kugrash. Kingston is tired.

"Again, not that I don't love these talks, but I've really got to go." Kingston goes to stand, his mind switching a bit sluggishly from Vox mode to nurse mode, but Misty's grasp around his arm stops him short. When he looks down at her, she gives him her most disappointed frown.

"No you do not! You're calling in to work and _demanding_ a day off, because you're going to spend the day with me and Kug!" She grins and pulls on his arm with far more strength than he would've expected from a woman of her stature. Kugrash's eyes widen as he looks from Misty to Kingston, as if weighing his options, before he shrugs and nods.

"Yeah, spend some time with your pals! You're having a rough time and hanging out with people that cheer you up is much better than going to work."

Kingston thinks about doing that, for just a second. Calling in to work for the first time in nearly twenty years, going home to eat ice cream and watch trashy sitcoms on his worn couch with his friends. It does sound like a better time than spending the rest of the day working, even if what he does is good work. Everyone needs a break every once in a while, right?

But just as quickly as he entertains the thought it's pushed from his mind by another glance at his watch. Kingston isn't just anybody, he's the voice of the people. Kingston serves New York City and New York City serves him, and if he's not doing his best to make lives better at the hospital than he can't in good faith keep his title as Vox Populi.

"Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I really need to get to work. Once I'm off I'll take some time to myself. For now, though, I've really gotta be going. Thanks for the fries."

With that, Kingston stands, shaking off Misty's grip with minimal effort. She looks upset, but not _at_ him, more like she's upset _for_ him. Sometimes she'll get that look in her eyes, the one that reminds him that this woman is a Faerie, has been alive for multiple hundreds of years, knows more than Kingston ever will. And then it's gone, replaced with indignant exasperation. Kugrash doesn't look much better, but Kingston's found that it's a bit harder to read his face, as he is a literal rat. Still, his beady eyes are glossy, in the way that they sometimes get when Kugrash is worried but doesn't know how to fix whatever's happening around him.

Kingston turns away from them.

His friends watch him go, already pulling out his token to summon the bus straight to the hospital. If they're quick, he'll get there five minutes early, just like usual. He's used to long hours, he'll get through the day, easy.

No, he does not think about that flash of a vision, the image of him and his friends making fun of bad TV together while eating ice cream and crying over exes. That would be ridiculous.

* * *

The moment Kingston enters his apartment, he feels like a weight has been lifted from his chest only to immediately be put back on. He'd been ready to eat a lame dinner and then immediately crash. He isn't even sure is he was going to change his clothes before he just crawled into the guest bed and slept for twelve hours.

Instead, what happens is that the door closes behind him and Kingston gets a clear view of Kugrash and Misty, sitting on his couch, eating popcorn and watching something on Kingston's TV. Misty is dressed in what is clearly pajamas meant more for looking good rather than actual comfort. Kugrash's fur is a little puffed up, and from the way his paws aren't leaving prints all over Kingston's couch, he assumes the rat man might've washed himself off a little bit. The two of them are huddled relatively close together, and Kugrash is pointing at the screen, howling with laughter while Misty chuckles quieter, delicately eating the popcorn like it's some delicacy.

It's not as if Kingston doesn't appreciate what he knows they're trying to do here, but he's _tired_ , it's been a long day and the only thing he thinks he may have the energy for is brushing his teeth before he goes to sleep. Still, when Kugrash spots him enter and beckons him to the couch, popcorn dust coating the fur around his mouth, Kingston can't help but smile.

His friends saw he wasn't doing well, so they broke into his apartment to make sure he got some rest. While it isn't the most conventional way to cheer someone up, he'll admit, Kingston appreciates it regardless. His friends have always been a bit unconventional like that.

Misty finally turns and her face practically lights up at the sight of him. "Kingston, you're finally home! Come, come, we're watching trashy sitcoms!"

"Just the shittiest ones we could find!" Kugrash tacks on, sticking his hand in the popcorn and attempting to toss it up into the air and catch it in his mouth. He fails, and the popcorn instead hits Misty, who raises an eyebrow at Kugrash when he starts to laugh.

Kingston, spent from a long day working and a longer day living, allows himself to smile as he hangs up his coat and makes his way to the couch. As he approaches Misty shoves Kugrash away from her, not roughly, but enough that there's now room between the two of them for Kingston to sit. The only complaint Kugrash has with it is that he's now further away from the popcorn bowl, which is in Misty's lap, but when Kingston takes it and holds it in the middle of the three of them Kugrash happily curls up beside him.

"We couldn't get ice cream," is the explanation Misty gives when he gestures to the popcorn bowl. Kugrash shrugs in what might be agreement, before he leans in to steal a handful.

Kingston doesn't know the name of the show they're watching, and it isn't _horrible_ , but it's bad enough that he gets a few laughs out of the jokes his friends make now and again. Kugrash is practically curled into a ball at his side, close enough that his shorter rat arms can reach into the popcorn bowl. Misty is leaning against his other side, no excuse readily available other than this is normally what she does when they're together.

The couch is comfortable in the way most couches are, and the TV isn't too loud but loud enough to hear, and the lights are off and he has his friends snuggled up to his sides and Kingston is exhausted, so it really is no wonder that he falls asleep in minutes. The last things he registers is Misty throwing popcorn across Kingston's lap at Kugrash, who attempts to snap it up in his mouth and fails. They both laugh, and the sounds sends warmth through Kingston.

Yeah, he'll be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact while writing this i somehow misclicked post instead of save three separate times so that was fun :)
> 
> also i know this is a little ooc but my excuse is that this was completely self indulgent so take that as you will
> 
> thank you for reading!!!


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